The guide
What to ask for.
Nobody is expected to arrive fluent. But a haircut goes better when you can describe it, so here is the vocabulary, in plain language, with no attempt to make it sound harder than it is.
Start here
Three things get you most of the way.
How short on the sides
A number, or "shorter than last time". If you do not know the number, say how it should feel: skin, stubble, or still something to grab.
How high it goes
Where the short part stops and the long part begins. Low, mid or high. This is the single change that alters how a cut reads.
What the top has to do
Not a length so much as a job. Sit back, part, spike, hide a cowlick, survive a hard hat. Say the job and the length follows.
The numbers
Clipper guards, in inches.
Guards are numbered, and each number is an eighth of an inch more than the last. That is the whole system.
- 0 — about a sixteenth. Stubble, not skin.
- 1 — an eighth of an inch.
- 2 — a quarter.
- 3 — three eighths. The most common "short back and sides".
- 4 — a half inch.
- 6 — three quarters.
- 8 — a full inch.
Shorter than a 0 means no guard at all, and shorter again means a foil shaver or a razor taking it to skin. Half sizes exist between the numbers and are where most of the blending actually happens, which is why a fade is not simply a list of numbers.
The two words people mix up
Taper or fade.
A taper is a gradual shortening in a narrow band at the nape and around the sideburns. The rest of the back and sides keeps its length. It is conservative, it grows out politely, and it is what most people mean when they say "clean it up".
A fade takes the whole back and sides through a gradient, from very short or bare skin at the bottom up into the length on top, with no visible line where one becomes the other. It looks sharper, and it is the one that needs re-cutting sooner.
Every fade contains a taper. Not every taper is a fade.
Height
Low, mid, high.
Where the fade starts is the difference between a haircut that reads quiet and one that reads sharp. Same length on top, entirely different cut.
Low
Begins just above the ear and stays near the hairline all the way round. Softest of the three, and the least noticeable when it grows out. The safe answer if you are unsure.
Mid
Begins around the temple, between the ear and the corner of the forehead. The middle of the road, and the most requested.
High
Begins at or above the corner where the head starts to curve. Strong contrast, a lot of skin, and a shorter window before it needs doing again.
Three more you might hear
- Drop fade — the line of the fade curves down behind the ear instead of running straight, following the shape of the head.
- Burst fade — the fade opens out in a semicircle around the ear and leaves the back longer. Common with a longer top.
- Skin or bald fade — the bottom of the fade is taken to bare skin. Sharpest contrast available, and there is no separate price for it here.
The back of your neck
Blocked, rounded or natural.
The neckline is the part of the haircut you never see and other people always do, and it decides how the cut looks three weeks later.
- Blocked — cut square across. Sharpest on day one, and the first thing to look untidy as it grows.
- Rounded — the corners taken off. A softer version of the same idea.
- Natural or tapered — follows the hairline you already have and fades into the skin. Least dramatic today, best-looking in week four.
If you stretch a haircut out as long as you can, ask for natural.
The top
Describe the job, not the inches.
Almost nobody can estimate an inch of wet hair, and that is fine, because the useful information is what the hair has to do afterwards.
- Fall forward, or sit back off the forehead.
- Hold a part, or never see a comb.
- Have enough weight to lie flat, or enough taken out to stop it puffing.
- Be long enough to still look deliberate in six weeks.
"Take a little off and keep the shape" is a real answer, and so is "I hate how it sits here". Pointing at the problem beats naming a style.
Beards
Two lines decide a beard.
Length is the easy part. Where the beard stops is what makes it look shaped rather than merely trimmed.
The cheek line
The top edge, running from the sideburn down toward the mouth. It can be left where it grows and simply tidied, or cut to a defined line. A defined line reads sharper and has to be kept up; a natural one is more forgiving and looks like less of a decision.
The neck line
The bottom edge. Too high and the beard looks like a chinstrap; too low and it runs into the chest. The usual guide is a little above the Adam's apple, curving up to meet behind the jaw rather than following the jawbone itself.
Beyond that: how short overall, whether the mustache is taken off the lip, and whether you want the edges finished with a straight razor. Here they are, on the deluxe beard trim. That is the difference between a beard that has been trimmed and one that has been shaped.
Between cuts
A line-up is not a haircut.
The hairline, neck and edges cleaned up so a cut in its third week looks like a cut in its first. It does not make anything shorter on top, it books its own fifteen minutes, and it is $15.
And if none of this helps
Bring a photo.
One picture settles more than a paragraph, and a barber would rather see it than guess. Bring one of a cut you liked, or one of your own hair on a day it behaved. Saying what went wrong last time is just as useful as saying what you want.